Upton, 45, of 2304 E. Rhyne St., Gastonia, had run a red light and was traveling in the wrong lane of traffic before the stop, according to court records. Officer Jones describes Upton of being unsteady on his feet and smelling of alcohol. He declined to take an alcohol-breath test, but a search warrant forced him to submit to a blood test.

Upton only faces a single DWI charge. In North Carolina, mo-ped operators do not need a driver’s license.

Upton, 45, of 2304 E. Rhyne St., Gastonia, had run a red light and was traveling in the wrong lane of traffic before the stop, according to court records. Officer Jones describes Upton of being unsteady on his feet and smelling of alcohol. He declined to take an alcohol-breath test, but a search warrant forced him to submit to a blood test.

Upton only faces a single DWI charge. In North Carolina, mo-ped operators do not need a driver’s license.

But despite Upton’s checkered past with driving while impaired those past convictions may not hurt him because of when they occurred.

Five of those seven convictions took place in the 1990s.

Upton’s most recent DWI conviction came in 2006, but that was for a 1998 drunken driving offense in Brunswick County. He also has a 2004 DWI conviction for a DWI charge in Gaston County the year before.

The other counties where Upton has picked up DWIs include Carteret, Brunswick and Catawba counties, according to court records. A 1996 DWI conviction in Gaston County goes back to him operating a motor boat while impaired. He also pleaded to a lesser charge in a boat-related DWI accusation.

Defense attorney David Phillips said under North Carolina law Upton’s past DWIs will be aggravating factors a judge could consider at sentencing, but Upton could also benefit by having a clean driving record for the past decade.

The two factors could even things out, Phillips said.

But Upton also was found guilty in Gaston County in 2005 of indecent liberties with a child, for which he served a prison sentence of about two years.

His past DWI convictions all drew probationary sentences, according to records with the Department of Correction.

Little can be done to stop someone who wants to drink and drive, Bell said.

“We can send him to prison, but once he gives out he can still drink and get behind the wheel, and that’s the problem.”